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HON. N. P. BANKS, 

OTP MASSACHUSETTS, 
UPON THE 

EEPKESENTATION OF THE UNITED STATES 

AT THE 

EXHIBITION OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY, 

PARIS, 1867 5 
Delivered in the House of Representatives, March 14,1866. 



In the wise economy of nations, ideas are better than blows, brains better than blood. 



/. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

Mansfield & Martin, Publishers, 

411 Pa. Avenue, cor. 4£ st. 

1866. 



us s 



PARIS EXHIBITION 



Mr. Stevens moved that the rules be suspended, and that the 
House resolve itself into the Committee of the Whole on the 
state of the Union. 

The motion was agreed to, and the House accordingly resolved 
itself into the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, 
(Mr. Wilson, of Iowa, in the chair), and proceeded to the con- 
sideration of House Joint Resolution, No. 52, to provide for the 
expenses attending the exhibition of the products of the industry 
of the United States at the Exposition in Paris in 1867. 

Mr. Washburne, of Illinois. I move to lay that aside and take 
up an appropriation bill. 

Mr. Banks. I hope not. It is necessary this question should 
be settled. 

The motion was disagreed to. 

Mr. Banks moved that, by unanimous consent, the first reading 
of the joint resolution for information be dispensed with. 

Mr. Washburne, of Illinois, objected. 

The joint resolution was then read a first time for information. 

Mr. Banks. I move to amend the first section by inserting the 
following words, omitted by accident : 

After line seven, section one, insert : 

First, to provide the necessary furniture and fixtures for the proper exhibition of the 
articles and products of the industry of the United States, according to the plan of the 
imperial commissioners, in that part of the building exclusively assigned to the use of the 
United States, $48,000. 

Mr. Chairman, I suppose this amendment opens the whole sub- 
ject for discussion. 

The Chairman. General debate has not been closed. 

Mr. Banks. Mr. Chairman, the amendment I have offered 
embraces the material part of the sum appropriated in the first reso- 
lution. It was this consideration that controlled the judgment of the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, to which the subject was referred, 
in recommending the House to make an appropriation for this 
purpose. 



It is proper to say, Mr. Chairman, that the Government of the 
United States has never made an appropriation of this character. 
Until the Exhibition of 1867 was proposed, no Government had 
taken the initiative and assumed the responsibility of expenses in- 
curred in exhibitions of this description. Industrial exhibitions in 
all ages have been enterprises of the people rather than of Gov- 
ernments. Whenever the people have had wrong3 to redress or 
lights to assert, their strongest appeals to public sympathy, except 
by violence, have been found in the exhibition of the fruits of their 
industry. Thus it has been in Poland, Hungary, France, Eng- 
land and America. Whenever the people sought to influence the 
Government or stamp their ideas upon the public mind, they have, 
in exhibiting the fruits of their industry, given evidence of their 
claims to favor. This was true of our own Revolution as of other 
States. It was not until 1851 that industrial exhibitions engaged 
the general attention of nations. But it was not even then public 
enterprise. The Exhibition of 1851 was inaugurated only upon 
guarantees of individual citizens that the Government should not 
be held responsible for losses that might be incurred upon its fail- 
ure. The national subscription to which the Queen contributed 
was the foundation of that first representation of the world's in- 
dustry. The Exhibitions at Paris in 1855, at London in 1862, 
and at Hamburg in 1863, proceeded on the same idea, that the 
enterprise was one of individual character, in which Governments par- 
ticipated, but for which they were not legally responsible, and which 
they did not assume to control. But at length, as with education, 
railways, and other popular organizations for the improvement of 
the condition of the people, industrial expositions enjoy for the 
first time the reluctant but essential patronage and favor of 
Governments. 

Under the great ruler who now directs the destinies of France, 
a Government has been made, for the first time in history,responsibl"e 
for the collection, classification, exhibition and scientific description 
of the world's industry, at which all nations are invited to present 
evidences of their prosperity, progress, and power in industrial 
pursuits. That Government has appropriated twenty millions francs 
for its expenses. It pays twelve millions from the treasury of the 
empire, and trusts that the balance of eight millions may be ob- 
tained from admission fees, and other forms of popular contribution. 

Belgium has appropriated six hundred thousand francs, 
or one hundred and twenty thousand dollars for the same 
purpose. Every nation on the European continent will make 
liberal appropriations. Individuals, societies, corporations, cities and 
departments of France will also be called upon for voluntary con- 
tributions. It is an enterprise in which Governments and not 
individuals are to act, and if the United States desires to be repro- 



sented in this exhibition of the world's wealth, it must be through 
their Government, and not, as heretofore, by private citizens. It 
is for that reason, among others, that the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs has recommended this appropriation to the House. Unless 
the Government takes the initiative and is represented as a 
Government, the people of the United States, interested in the 
representation of our progress in industry, will be without rights or 
privileges. It is important that we should consider the subject in 
view of this fact. 

On the 15th of January last a resolution wa3 approved by the 
President, which had passed both Houses of Congress, accepting 
the invitation of the Emperor of France to take part in the Expo- 
sition of 1867. And it now becomes our duty to say whether, by fit 
appropriations for this purpose, we will enable the people we repre- 
sent to avail themselves of the advantages offered us in common 
with other nations. There can be no impropriety in suggesting that if 
we are to be. represented at all we should be well represented, and 
that we should conform to the plan of the imperial commission. 
This plan has probably attracted the attention of gentlemen of the 
House, as it has been printed at length, with the executive docu- 
ments. (No. 12) Each Government is to be represented through 
its industrial agents. A part of the palace constructed for the 
proper exhibition of the varied products of human industry is 
assigned to each nation. The structure covers thirty-six acres of 
the Champ de Mars. It is elliptical in form. Each of the ten 
groups into which the varied employments of the family of man 
are divided occupy one of the ten divisions running with the cir- 
cular lines of the structure. Each nation is assigned a section of 
the ground plan, running from the outside to the center ; so that a 
spectator, in moving around the building, inspects all the products 
of human industry in any one of the ten grand divisions in which 
it is classified. Moving from the outside to the center by trans- 
verse passages, he will see in the most complete arrangement the 
general products of each nation. The industry of the world is thus 
so classified and arranged that a connected view of the whole, or of 
each nation, is easily obtained. The United States ranks the 
eighth in the list of assignments of space. It has six times the 
room heretofore assigned to us in other exhibitions when it stood 
fourth in the rank of nations. 

It is-necessary that the portion assigned to us should be fur- 
nished for the proper exhibition of the fruits of our industry, ac- 
cording to the plan provided for other nations. The expendi- 
tures required for this purpose, upon the estimate of the American 
minister at Paris, for furniture and fixtures, will be $48,000. It 
is to provide for this sum that the amendment is offered which I 
have sent to the Chair, and which was omitted in the printed form 



6 

by accident. I am authorized to say by the committee that it is 
their unanimous opinion that the acceptance of the invitation on 
the part of the Government makes it incumbent upon us to make 
this appropriation at least. I believe they were all united in that 
opinion. The committee hesitated long and considered carefully 
the subject in question in every point of view, before they con- 
sented to recommend the appropriation of $100,000. 

The part of the building assigned to us contains thirty thous- 
and square feet.' It gives us twenty thousand feet for passage- 
ways and ten thousand feet net far exhibition. Every State in 
the Union has already made application for a portion of this 
space. The State of Illinois has applied for a very large share, 
and altogether the room already demanded will more than cover 
the space assigned to us. It is probable that a larger part of the 
building would have been appropriated to the United States had 
the representative of the Government at Paris or the executive 
officers here been authorized to accept the invitation, or specify 
what space would be required, or how much would be occupied. 
But no one at Paris or in Washington had authority to designate 
the space likely to be required or occupied, or to accept the invi- 
tation of the French Government. The opinion was expressed 
that the American people would desire to be represented and that 
the largest space allowed would be occupied. It is to furnish ap- 
propriate furniture and fixtures for this space that the appropria- 
tion of $48,000 is proposed. 

I will turn to the next section of the bill in order to explain 
other expenditures which are embraced in the appropriation recom- 
mended: For the'compensation of four clerks in New York and 
four clerks in Paris, whose salaries shall be as follows : one at 
$1,600, one at $1,400, and two at $1,200 each. 

These clerks are provided for at New York in the resolution 
which passed Congress, and was approved by the President. This 
bill reduces the salaries specified in the joint resolution 
which was approved January 15, from $1,600 to $1,400, or $200 
of the pay of each clerk. So that it makes a reduction in the 
sum required to that extent If we are to be represented at Paris, 
if we are to expend $48,000 for fixtures and furniture, it of course 
is necessary that there should be some arrangement by which the 
articles presented for exhibition should be so classified as] to avoid 
transportation of duplicate articles from the several States, or from 
different parts of the same State. It is therefore absolutely neces- 
sary that there should be officers to perform this duty. A general 
agent was appointed at New York by the Secretary of State, whose 
salary was not determined. This appointment has been approved 
by Congress, and the appropriation is made for his compensation 
and that of the clerks he was authorized to appoint. 



The next provision is for the compensation of professional and 
scientific commissioners; ten in number, at the rate of $1,000 each 
per annum, $10,000. 

It may seem to some unnecessary that there should be ten scien- 
tific commissioners appointed to attend this Exposition ; but if it be 
necessary, assuredly the compensation of $1,000 will not be 
deemed extravagant. I think I may say with some degree of 
confidence that if the committee will consider the character of the 
Exposition and the plan upon which it is organized they will come 
to the conclusion that a scientific commission for the purpose 
of examining and reporting upon the results of the industry of the 
world is absolutely essential to the full realization of its manifold 
advantages, and will far more than compensate for the expendi- 
ture proposed by this section. 

The plan of the Exposition of 1867 is the grandest classifica- 
tion of the products of human industry that the mind of man has 
ever conceived. There has never been presented, in the history of 
the worlc^ such a comprehensive, systematic, and scientific group- 
ing of the various branches of human industry as this plan unfolds. 
All the pursuits and products of its people are grouped in ten lead- 
ing divisions, and subdivided into ninety five classes. It is pro- 
posed by the American minister at Paris, acting as commissioner 
for the United States, that one scientific commissioner for each 
of these groups shall be appointed by the Government. The 
groups are as follows : 

1. Works of art. 

2. Materials and application of labor to art. 

3. Furniture and other household articles, 

4. Clothing, including cloths and wearing apparel. 

5. Mining, and the rough and wrought products of mining. ■* 

6. Processes of mechanic arts. 

7. Food, fresh and preserved, in its various states. 

8. Leading agricultural products and specimens. 

9. Natural horticultural products and specimens. 

10. Objects especially exhibited for improving the physical 
and moral condition of the populations of the earth. 

These ten groups embrace all the 1 pursuits of man, all the pro- 
ducts of industry; they represent the habits of life, and all the rela- 
tions of men to each other, to society, and to progressive civilization. 
It is of vast importance that this Exhibition should be so far 
studied by our people that we may be able to comprehend the 
advantages to be derived from it, and fitly appopriate them for 
the instruction and benefit of the different sections of our country. 

We have eminent scientific men in every State who are 
capable not only of illustrating our own relation to the industrial 
^products of the earth, but of combining in concise, comprehensive 



reports the results of their investigation, and imparting that in- 
formation to our people. 

In the eastern States we have Professor Agassiz, now in South 
America, whose investigations in natural science will electrify the 
world, and give to American science a nobler prestige than has 
been conferred upon any nation except by Humboldt. Professor 
Agassiz believes that the sons of the noble families of Europe will 
be sent to the universities of fakis country to complete their educa- 
cation, and that in the study of natural science we shall have 
advantages that are not enjoyed by any other nation or people on 
the face of the earth. 

In the middle States there are thousands who understand what 
is necessary for the development of their industry and the pro- 
motion of the great public interests identified with and dependent 
on the success of American industry. 

And the valley of the Mississippi — a valley that is comparatively 
unknown to us — that is capable of supporting five hundred or a 
thousand million people, which will yield to our industry every 
product of the eastern or western hemispheres, will be able to 
present men who comprehend the vast resources of that section of 
our country, who will represent its power, make known its im- 
provement-! accomplished or anticipated, and report the progress of 
industry elsewhere. 

In regard to the mineral and commercial regions on the Pacific 
coast, it is of the greatest importance that a representative of 
scientific and practical skill should be able to present to the people 
of the Old World an idea of the capacities and resources of that 
part of our country, and also make known to us in return what 
advantages may be derived from this Industrial Exhibition. 

In this manner we shall be able to represent our material wealth. 
And more than that, it is in our power to represent the social 
and political character of the country in such a way as to attract 
the attention of other nations The education and social customs 
of the people, their habits of industry, the food upon which they 
live, the clothing they wear, the dwellings they occupy, the society 
in which they move, everything pertaining to American civilization 
will be represented by m We can show the log cabin where lived 
one of the earlier Presidents of the Union, and the humble roof be- 
neath which dwelt the martyr President, whose name is known and 
beloved by the common people of all nations We can show the 
habits of our people in their industrial pursuits, the advantages that 
they enjoy in respect to education and progress, the constant im- 
provement and elevation of the working classes, and thus place 
before the world an enlarged view of the condition and the pros- 
pect of American civilization, that has not been, and cannot be 
presented in any other manner. 



And I think the expenditure of $100,000 to represent American 
civilization in this grand Exposition, the results of which will be re- 
ported through ten of the best informed, the most scientific and 
practical men of the country, will be money very profitably ex- 
pended. 

The next section relates to an additional structure which possibly 
may become necessary for our accommodation. I have said that 
thirty thousand square feet in gross have been assigned to us by 
the French Government, placing us eighth in the list of nations. 
Beyond all question that will be insufficient. Applications have 
been made already that will more than fill this entire space. The 
State of Illinois alone has made application for nearly all the space 
assigned to the United States It may be necessary to pro- 
vide an additional structure. In the Champ de Mars, embracing 
one hundred and fifty acres, we can have as much room as we 
please, and therefore it is proposed, if it shall be requisite, that 
the Government of the United States shall appropriate §25,000 
for an additional building, upon condition that an equal sum shall 
be Contributed by individuals for the same purpose. It may be 
found necessary or it may not I do not think the appropriation 
unreasonable. Belgium, it is reported to us by the American min- 
ister, has already provided for a similar addition to the space as- 
signed her, and other nations will probably follow her example. 

The next section contains an appropriation for contingent ex- 
penses in Paris and New York, to be expended as the commis- 
sioners may direct, $5,000, for rent, advertising, and incidental 
expenses already incurred in pursuance of the action of the 
Secretary of State, confirmed by the two Houses of Congress, 
and approved by the President. 

The next is a section to which I propose to offer an amendment 
when it shall be reached. It now provides that the Secretary of 
the Navy, at the request of the Secretary of State, shall be 
authorized to furnish one or more public vessels to transport the 
industrial products of this country, intended for exhibition, to and 
from France. The opinions of the Secretary of the Navy upon 
this subject, as indicated when the subject was up before, have led 
me, upon my own responsibility, to suggest a modification. I 
propose that the President of the United States shall be 
requested to furnish one or more public vessels for the transporta- 
tion of the industrial products of this country to France, but not 
to return them ; because it might be said, as the exhibition will 
continue for six months, that to keep the vessels there for that 
time, or to subject them to another voyage out to bring the goods. 
to this country, would be perhaps an unreasonable addition to the 
expense. I therefore propose that we provide one or more public 



10 

vessels for the transportation of our products to the shores of 
France. 

And I take occasion to say that the representations, made when 
the subject was before U3 some weeks since, have no substantial 
foundation. Gentlemen have said that the expense would be two 
or three huudred thousand dollars, and we have been told that 
the Navy Department is responsible for this statement. I say, 
Mr. Chairman, that no such expenditure will be required ; that 
neither $100,000 nor $50,000 nor $20,000 nor $10,000 nor any 
other considerable expense will be incurred. Trie expenditure will 
be no more than that which pertains to the possession of the ves- 
sels which the Government now own3. and the employment of 
officers and men now in public service. 

We ask in the first place nothing more than store-ships — sailing 
vessels — which are now at the disposal of the Navy Department, 
which are not engaged in any public service, and can be assigned 
to this duty without additional cost to the Government. The 
use of the vessels with the services of the officers and men now 
employed and paid by the Government will add nothing at all to 
the expenses of the Department; and I feel authorized to say on 
behalf of the committee that we will gratefully accept the meanest 
exhibition of the national flag which the Navy Departmant chooses 
to make for us in aid of this great national representation of our 
industry. 

I am told by officers of the Navy Department that these store- 
ships, when they are not wanted for service, are not now even 
sold ; that the prices which they bring are so insignificant that they 
are broken up for the sake of the material. It is only necessary 
therefore for the Navy Department to preserve one, two, three, or 
four of these vessels, as may be required, and this will give us all 
that we demand for transporting the varied products of our indus- 
try to the shores of France. Within the present month I believe 
not less than twenty steamers have been sold in the city of Balti- 
more at an average of less than $6,000 each ; half of them for 
less* than $4,000 each. Even if we should ask the use of steam- 
ers, which we do not, certainly the Government of the United States 
has the power to gratify the people of this country at a very 
slight cost and with very little trouble 

The reason for making this request upon the Navy Department 
is based upon a fact alike honorable to the service and the people 
of England and America. At the Exhibition of 1851 the Secre- 
tary of the Navy, without request of Congress, authority of 
law, or unjustifiable expense, gave to the manufacturers, the arti- 
sans, the* agriculturalists of this country, the use of the war 
frigate St. Lawrence, to carry to England the products of 
their industry ; and the arrival of the St. Lawrence at Southamp- 



11 

ton is announced in the English histories of the Exhibition of 1851 
as one of the mos*t notable and gratifying incidents of that grand 
industrial exposition. The officers and men of the frigate were 
honored with an ovation at Southampton, and wherever they ap- 
peared, within the British realm they were recognized as the 
representatives of the flag of our country, the bearers of the con- 
tributions of American industry. 

Now, sir, if that was the case in 1851, assuredly the flag of the 
United States will be more welcome to the People of Europe, if not 
to its Rulers, in the grander Exhibition of 1867. We ask in this caee 
only that the Government shall lend us the flag of our country to 
cover the industrial representations of all classes of its people 
from every part of its territory. 

There is in the resolution a provision which authorizes the com- 
missioner at New York to charge the exhibitors one half of. the 
current rate of freight to France, the proceeds of which were in- 
tended to be applied to the reduction of the general expenses of 
this exhibition on the part' of our Government as provided for by 
the first resolution appropriating the sum of $100, 000. It was 
that provision which led me to 'say in reply to a question of the 
gentleman from Illinois, [Mr. Washburne,] when the subject 
first came before the House, that the expense would not in 
any event exceed $100,000, and probably would not exceed $50,- 
0O0. But, upon reflection, I felt that it was not altogether an 
elevated proceeding for the Government of the United States, in 
the use of the vessels owned and paid for by the people, to charge 
half-price freight upon the articles to be exhibited in Paris next 
year for the purpose of illustrating the grandeur and progress of 
our country, especially for the benefit of the Government and the 
people. And therefore I propose on my own responsibility to 
strike out that section, which stands as the third section in the 
printed resolution, leaving it as it stands in the second section, 
modifying it, however, so far as to call upon the President, instead 
of the Secretary of the Navy, to furnish the vessels. 

And I do this, sir, for another reason which did not occur to us 
in its full strength at the time the committe reported this resolu-. 
tion. The products -which we send to Paris will be to a great 
extent sold in Europe. The American minister at Paris has ex- 
pressed the opinion that nine-tenths of the articles we send out will 
be sold there. They ought all to be sold. I think, therefore, 
there will be no necessity for specially providing for their return. 
I do not think there is any great generosity in charging contribu- 
tors half-freight for their transportation to France. For these rea- 
sons I shall submit the several amendments which I have indicated. 

Mr. Chairman, will gentlemen of the committee allow me, and I 
do not know but I am trespassing too much on their attention — 



12 

Several Members. Go on ; we want to hear you. 

Mr Banks. Will gentlemen allow me to call attention to the 
results of previous unauthorized exhibitions of American industry 
in London, Paris, and Hamburg? Carefully as Ave study the his 
tory of this country, and especially its industry, we know very 
little of its present power, and nothing at all I apprehend of its 
future. It is by comparison only that we first learn what we are, 
or what we may and ought to be. We did not know in 1851, 
when we sent to London unknown men, not unknown merely in 
England, but unknown in America, that they were to instruct and 
electrify the people of all nations most interested in prominent 
industrial pursuits. When Mr. McCormick took out his reaper it 
was hardly recognized here as a successful implement of agricul- 
ture. It was regarded rather as evidence of speculative than 
practical mechanical genius. It was only when it challenged and 
received the admiration of the world that general attention in this 
country was called to its great merits and wonderful success. 
When George Steers sent out the yacht America it attracted little 
attention. The London journals announced, after a careful exam- 
ination of its model, that it was of a novel and not very promising 
style of architecture, of which we had no great reason to be proud ; 
but when it entered the contest against the sailing vessels of the 
whole world, and so far won in the sea race as to leave no flag sec- 
ond, then every American heart bounded with joy, and the light 
of brighter thought and new ideas broke upon the people of all 
nations.^ 

There were other honorable examples of American skill. There 
went from New York city an unknown mechanic, Mr A. C. Hobbs, 
a native, I believe, of Massachusetts. His purpose was to exhibit 
a commercial lock of American manufacture. The English lock- 
smiths, Chubbs and Bramah, put their .most ingenious and impor- 
tant pieces of mechanism against the w r orld. Bramah had exposed 
his lock in one of the grand thoroughfares of London, with an offer 
of 200 guineas to any one who could open it, for more than twenty 
years, without a claimant for the golden prize. Mr. Hobbs opened 
the Chubbs lock in twenty-five minutes, and relocked it in seven. 
He did this with such facility that the London News said it ren- 
dered the challenge ridiculous. The London mechanics estimated 
that it would require the life-time of a Methuselah to Ipen the Bra- 
mah lock, if it could be done at all, so numerous were its combina- 
tions, but Mr. Hobbs unlocked and relocked it, after a couple of 
days' study and experiment, without injury, as often as it was desir- 
ed, to the astonishment of the English mechanics. But this was not 
his only triumph. He offered to allow any man to take his own 
lock to pieces and put it together again, and then challenged him 
to open it, and there was not a man in England that could do it. 



IS 

But, sir, it is unnecessary to refer to the brilliant success of other 
American exhibitors, and yet every one must confess that, so far 
as the Government was represented in the Exhibition of 1851, it 
was a melancholy and discreditable feature. We were saved from 
humiliation if not disgrace by the unexpected and marvellous skill 
and power of our own unappreciated mechanics. 

In 1862 the Exhibition was repeated in London on a grander 
scale. We were then engaged in a terrible war, and could not 
afford to expend money on any extraneous object. Ninety-five 
American citizens however went there at their own risk and cost, 
to exhibit the industry of the United States. Eighty-three of 
those ninety-five American exhibitors received prizes in the differ- 
ent branches of iudustry which they represented, and of twenty- 
five mechanical exhibitors every one was honored with a medal. 

The London Times, in speaking of that Exhibition, said that 
after the mechanical section, the United States department was 
the point of general attraction for the people of all nations. 
There was no representation of the Government, no full represen- 
tation of the industry, skill, genius, power, and wealth of our 
people ; a few unauthorized citizens had gone there at their own 
expense, and they alone, according to the London Times, consti- 
tuted the second point of attraction to the people of all nations. 
And foremost among these, according to the representation of the 
English journals, the great middle classes of Europe were most 
constant and interested in their attendance upon the American 
department. 

In the Exposition of 1863, at Hamburg, the Government was 
not represented, but some of our enterprising citizens were there ; 
among others, an enterprising farmer from the State of Vermont, 
on his own account, without the slightest expectation of 
achieving distinction for himself or his country. He took with 
him, to represent one of the great staple interests of this country, 
twelve sheep. I do not suppose there is a man in this House, or 
that there was at that time a man in the United States, who be- 
lieved for a single moment that the American States were equal in 
sheep culture to those nations where it has been pursued with 
zealous and prudent care for many hundred years. In the 
Exposition at Hamburg, thirty-five different nations were repre- 
sented. The crowned heads of Europe had their own finest speci- 
mens of the sheep of Europe and Asia ; the Emperor of the 
French was represented among others by his own choice specimens of 
stock. And this Vermont sheep raiser, Mr. Campbell — I ought to 
mention his name — who carried out at his own cost twelve sheep, 
was honored not only by a comparison of his animals with those of 
other States, but he received two first prizes, and a second prize, 
for the superiority of his stock. The award was no$ made by 



14 

friends of this Government, not by men interested in our people, 
but by strangers ; and when it was announced that an American 
had received two first prizes for the superiority of his stock, and 
the second prize also, it was rejected as fabulous, and being veri- 
fied by the subsequent publication of the awards the integrity of 
the judges was disputed ; but Mr. Campbell challenged a second 
examination, which was not accepted, and the award was further 
vindicated by the sale of his sheep to the first breeders in Europe 
for $5,000. 

I need not go further in the discussion «of this matter, to show 
what we have done in the past. Let me say a word as to what we 
may do in future* 

Mr. Chairman, of the ten groups into which the imperial com- 
mission has classified the industry of the world, the United States, 
if it shall be properly represented, will be at least the equal if not 
the superior of other nations in six or seven. I need hardly re- 
count them. In works of art, although we have a reputation not 
yet in blossom, I am sure we shall stand in some respects the 
equals of modem representatives of older nations. The illus- 
trations of the grand features of American scenery by Church, 
Bierstadt, Lutze and others; the marbles of Powers, Story, 
and Hosmer, and other sculptors yet unknown, and who will never 
be known except they shall have opportunity to compare their 
achievements with the art triumphs of other countries, cannot fail 
to attract at least respectful attention. 

In wood engraving, the great democratic exemplification of the 
art most important of all to literature, and for that instruction of 
the people, the United States not only stands equal to the best, 
but it has achieved distinction by photographic applications and 
other processes hitherto unknown to artists of the same profession 
in other parts of the world, which will hereafter be to the art of 
design what photography has been to painting. The day is not 
distant when neither journals nor books will be published in this 
country without pictorial illustration. 

The inexpensive and almost instantaneous process of making casts 
from life lately introduced, will make the study of sculpture, that' 
branch of art most attractive to Americans, as common as crayon 
sketching and photography. The cultivation of the art of design 
is destined to give to our manufactures and commerce an advan- 
tage which has been hitherto monopolised by older nations, and 
open to our people, women as well as men, elevated and limitless 
occupation. In the manufacture of silver ware, jewelry, porcelains 
and other articles of luxury, in which elegance of design and 
skillful handiwork constitute the chief value, our products already 
maintain exclusive possession of our own markets. 

In materials and applications for the liberal arts, we have no jus 



• ' 15 

still less exact knowledge of our capacity. We can only know by 
comparison with other nations what this continent will produce in 
the way of the materials applicable to the liberal arts, but we need 
not be surprised if in this feature of the first group we stand as 
well as other nations. 

In the fifth group, which embraces minerals and the raw and 
wrought products of mining, certainly we may assume that no part 
of the world is equal to the United States The mines of Russia 
do not compare with our metalliferous deposits. The mineral 
regions of Russia are chiefly on the eastern slope of the Ural 
mountains, from three to five thousand miles from St. Petersburg, 
whose waters run mainly from the centers of population to the 
Artie sea, the expense of transportation consuming the greater part 
of the value of the products. Our exhaustless wealth lies on the 
lines of settlement, where population is moving, where railroads are 
constructed, and towns, cities, and States are rising, and commerce 
flows in living and perpetual streams, so that we may say that our 
mineral wealth in respect to the seaports of the Atlantic or 
the Pacific coast, in view of the great lines of rail and water trans- 
portation, are the same to us, or will be, as if it were at the 
threshold of the Mint of Philadelphia and San Francisco, or the 
marts of New York and Boston. 

The capacity cf our people in mechanism and invention re- 
quires no endorsement, and in other branches of manufacturing 
industry we shall maintain at least a respectable position. 
In respect to mechanical development it is impossible for us 
to estimate justly our own position without comparison with other 
nations. But our progress will far surpass our own expectations. 
The most successful exhibition of American industry ever given by 
the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association was that of 
last year when, on account of the press of applications for space, 
machines were excluded except those which had been invented 
within the last five years. 

The chief feature in our progress is the achievement of nu- 
merous and surprising results by the aid of machinery, which in 
other lands are accomplished by the slow and costly process of 
manual labor. The adaptation of machinery to the manufacture of 
watches, where the roughly swedged. materials are in a single day, 
under one roof, at a small cost, by the labor of girls and men, 
turned out in the form of time-keepers, equal in style, workman- 
ship and integrity of time, to the best articles of European manu- 
facture; the substitution of mechanical for manual labor in the cul- 
tivation of the soil; the construction of philosophical instruments, 
and in the manufacture of arms and ordnance, and in naval archi- 
tecture, and the general adaptation of mechanical powers to the 
purposes of Christian civilization, are among the wonders of the 



16 

world. If other nation surpass us, their instruction will richly 
repay us for any contributions wc make to the general stock of 
industrial ideas. 

Let a square yard of the prairie soil of the northwest, and 
the rich alluvial of the Mississippi valley, be transported in 
glass, covered by the natural grass which, furnishes food for 
the autumnal prairie fires, showing its depth, accompanied by 
the products to which it gives life ; the charts which illustrate 
its location; the tables which show its extent; the prices at 
which it is held; the cereals which it is capable of producing; 
its proximity to the markets of the world, and the probable 
increase of the population it is destined to support within the 
present generation ; and the landless millions of European 
middle life will gain new hopes, and give to American civiliza- 
tion renewed strength and nobler aspirations. 

We have passed through a war of great trials and great suc- 
cess. It has challenged the attention of the world. There 
will be nothing which the people of other countries will more 
desire to comprehend than the materiel and organization of the 
American Army. The Quartermaster's Department sends an 
army wagon, manufactured at Philadelphia, that followed 
McClellan through his Potomac campaign, Rosecrans in Ten- 
nessee, Sherman in his great march from the mountains to the 
sea, and by the coast to Richmond, where it awaited the sur- 
render of Lee. A pair of worn-out shoes, the dress of an 
American soldier, his shelter tent, his bayonet, his musket, his 
knapsack, his cap, his rations, anything that belonged to him, 
will attract more attention, draw greater crowds of people, and 
hold them longer and closer, than the crown jewels of England, 
or the Kohinoor of India. 

We want to see, also, the Navy of our country represented, 
that Navy which ought to be willing to assist us in the slight 
demand we make upon it. We want the people of Europe to 
see our iron-clads and monitors, as novel and as triumphant in 
naval architecture as was the yacht America, of 1851. We want 
them to see our twenty-inch guns and the thousand-pound pro- 
jectiles we fabricate. The naval authorities of our country, I 
am told, would not hesitate to challenge the navies of the 
whole world to open their batteries upon one of our unresisting 
and silent monitors, sleeping in the waters of Cherbourg like 
a turtle, if they will allow her to return the fire of each with a 
single shot. ■ We want the people of the old world to see what 
our mechanics have done and can do ; that we have not 
been exhausted by wa#, crippled by heavy expenditures, des- 
troy lmI by large armies, or disturbed by the most gigantic rebel- 
lion of any age ; and we desire to show them that we prefer 
peace to war ; that we are still equal to either, and may be good 



n 

friends or dangerous enemies, [applause ;] that we prefer 
peace ; that the triumphs of peaceful industry are our pride, 
but that if war be made on us by their rulers, they must not 
count upon an unresisting foe, but on one that will carry havoc 
and devastation into their country, as it has been carried into 
the country of our enemies. [Applause.] We want to see 
in command of an American frigate in European waters, the 
artless and heroic naval commander, the Homeric leader, a 
character cast in Plutarch's mould — Admiral Farragut, whose 
naval exploits equal those of Duguay Trouin of France, Van 
Tromp of Holland, or Nelson of England. And that he may 
not stand alone, we want our gallant soldiers to be represented 
by their leaders, Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, that we may 
show the world, with the triumphs of our industry, of what 
stuff the American Army and Navy are made. 

In the way of peace and for the purpose of averting war, there 
can be no act of the American Government more important than 
this. I can scarcely doubt that the Emperor of France desires 
war with this country. One who sits upon a bayonet has a 
sharp seat, and cannot remain quiet long. But Napoleon and 
other rulers of Europe must reconcile public opinion to their 
policy, whatever it may be, and satisfy the people of their 
respective Governments that they have an easy task and a 
certain end. While he has the power to represent America 
and France as he chooses, the people have no medium of informa- 
tion but his representations. But in this industrial theatre of 
nations, the voice of rulers will be no more potential than that 
of the people. The thin, delusive veil of diplomacy which has 
been hanging between Governments and the people for centuries, 
and which, is responsible for most of the injustice the nations 
have suffered through long ages of oppression, will be lifted, 
and the people will understand each other. 

God, in this the greatest of His providences, now gives to 
the democracy of America an opportunity to speak face to face 
with the democracy of Europe. The products of industry con- 
stitute the language of labor. It is an universal tongue. 
Every man comprehends and speaks it. And when they 
shall have seen for themselves the results of our war and our 
capacity in peace, they will advise the rulers of Europe 
that the people of America are to be courted as friends rather 
than pursued as enemies. Thus, as an affair of peace or 
war, in preserving our relations with the Governments of other 
nations upon a proper basis, and in the means of defending our 
rights, a just representation of our resources is the best possible 
appeal we can make. 

But it is not in this view alone that such representation is 
important. This great industrial congress will constitute an 
2 



18 

era in the history of labor, as it will in the civilization of the 
world. 

Let me recall a few of the leading features of our position and 
power, scarcely known to us, and never contemplated by the 
people of other countries. 

Our cereal products double in quantity every ten years. 
They are now larger than the grain crops of France, equal 
to those of England, and, in ten years, \fill exceed the crops 
of both empires. Lamartine, in his letter justifying the 
French occupation of Mexico, says distinctly that the North 
American Continent is to become the granary of the world, and 
that France must control a portion of its territory or be subor- 
dinate to the Government and people of the United States. 

The cotton crop gives employment to forty million Europeans. 
It has been cultivated in eight States, mainly in but five. Its 
largest product has been five million bales a year. It can be 
successfully and profitably cultivated in twenty States, certainly 
in half of the States of the Union, and instead of being limited 
to ^ve million, we will soon send to the markets of the world 
twenty million bales each year. 

The grape is an indigenous product of this country. In the 
northern Mexican States, on the Pacific coast, in the valley of 
the Mississippi, on the Ohio, and in other sections, there is evi- 
dence, abundant and irresistible, that we shall soon share, at 
least, with the rest of the world in the control of its wine 
markets. We already export wines, with other agricultural 
products, from the Pacific coast to South America, Australia, 
the Sandwich Islands, Japan, and the Asiatic nations. 

The mineral wealth of this country is fabulous. No man 
would be credited for a moment in the industrial council of 
nations, next year, if he stated upon .his own responsibility 
what is the possible, even the probable, development of the 
mineral wealth of this country. It is only when the Gov- 
ernment makes its exposition that the people of the old 
world will credit the relation. Our metalliferous regions 
embrace seventeen parallels of latitude, and nearly an equal 
measure of longitude, covering two million square miles, the 
whole of which is plethoric with iron, lead, copper, asphaltum, 
silver, quicksilver, gold, and other known and unknown min- 
eral substances. 

California has already given us $460,000,000 in gold. The 
same energy applied to other mineral regions of the Pacific 
coast will return an annual product of $400,000,000 in gold, 
and $200,000,000 in other useful and precious metals. Six 
hundred million dollars a year ! In the centre of the conti- 
nent, between our most populous States, on the threshold of 
our commercial cities," at the doors of the mints of Philadelphia 



19 

and San Francisco, lies this deposit ! Its value is inappreci- 
able, its presence is unquestionable, its proximity undeniable, 
and its realization demands but the completion of the lines of 
transportation now in process of construction ! What in the 
world is equal to it? What are the mines of Spain, of India, 
and Australia? Kussia alone offers material for comparison ; 
Russia, whose metallic wealth lies mainly upon the eastern slope 
of the Ural Mountains, from three to five thousand miles from 
the centres of commerce and population ; cut off from the arti- 
ficial and natural lines of communication, and offering no 
available natural outlet except the waters that flow from the 
mountains northward into the Arctic Sea. 

Several years since Baron Von Humboldt expressed to Mr. 
San ford, our Minister to Belgium, the confident belief that 
the mountains of Virginia would be found to be a rich deposit 
of diamonds. And in confirmation of this suggestion of one 
who could read the surface of the earth as an expert in natural 
science recognizes a fish "by its bones or its scales — as if in 
exemplification of the philosophic theory of Humboldt, we see 
it announced, in the southern portion of the continent, that 
diamonds and other precious stones have already been dis- 
covered. 

We know comparatively nothing of the mineral character, 
resources, or wealth of the metalliferous regions of our country. 
It is only when we shall stand in the council of scientific men, 
representing all parts of the world, and thoroughly conversant 
with its wondrous developments, our own resources fully and 
justly represented, that we shall be able to estimate their value. 

I need not speak of the petroleum discoveries in the view or 
with the spirit of speculation. I have no eye for speculation. 
I never saw in my life a share of stock or scrip of any sort, 
and have no care for such things. I do not doubt that, so far 
as petroleum is the subject of speculation, it will be, as all 
speculation is, a public injury. But we must respect the devel- 
opments of nature, in whatever shape they present themselves. 
Here in the rich bosom of our most populous States, we dis- 
cover that Providence has given to us wealth in a form 
indispensable to all nations and all pursuits, in almost 
exhaustless quantities. It would seem as if precious oils 
flowed in the veins of the earth as does its water ; that when 
it is exhausted in one place it appears in another, and when 
exhausted in the second fountain it reappears in the first. 
With any ordinary and reasonable drain upon this most boun- 
teous and marvellous development, we may well say that it is 
exhaustless. It extends from the Alleghanies to the Pacific 
coast, and may be found anywhere within an area of two 
million square miles ; and no man can fix his stake at any 



20 

point where it is not possible to penetrate the earth and receive 
wealth in this form, in addition to the other perhaps more 
reliable and beneficent products of the soil. 

Let us look at another subject in which we have or ought to 
have some interest. It is the American railway system. The 
railway is a new element of civilization and power. We have 
thirty-one thousand miles of railroad — four times as much as 
England — more than any other country. We can build as 
much as we want, and as soon as we please. Other nations 
count the cost, but we have no cost, for to invest in a railway 
is to give value to property existing in other forms. The con- 
struction of our railways has cost us $1,100,000,000. Eight hun- 
dred millions, as I stated the other day, were expended between 
1850 and 1860 ; and I have no doubt that between 1870 and 
1880, $1,000,000,000 more will be invested, so that we shall 
have a railway to every part of this country, connecting all the 
points of domestic wealth with the commerce of the world, 
whether it be the coal of Pennsylvania, the lead of Illinois, the 
copper of Michigan, or the gold and silver of the Pacific coast. 

[Here the hammer fell.] 

Mr. ASHLEY, of Ohio. I move that, by unanimous consent, 
the gentleman from Massachusetts be allowed to conclude his 
remarks. 

There was no objection. 

Mr. BANKS. Again, sir, consider the question in another 
aspect, which is rather moral than financial or industrial. Mr. 
Oliphant, of the British Parliament, said in a public speech, 
the other day, that in religious and secular education, the 
United States are ahead of the whole world. It is well known 
that we appropriate more money in public education than all 
other nations. In the exposition of 1867, education will be a 
material feature. It would be a crime if the nations of the 
earth are to report progress in popular education, and the 
Government of the United States should not, in this respect, at 
least be properly represented. And the same is true of the 
public press of the country, another form of public education in 
which adults rather than children, receive instruction. In its 
present democratic form, it is essentially an American institu- 
tion. In 1860, of four thousand journals, according to the 
census returns, a thousand million copies were published and 
sold, making one weekly copy for every soul in the country, and 
the annual publication is now probably more than double the 
number. 

The area and population of every country limit its productive 
power. The population is its only active agent in the develop- 
ment of its resources, and its territorial area limits the growth 
and strength of its population. In these respects, we cannot 



21 

well hesitate to enter the arena of comparison. Our terri- 
torial area is nearly three million square miles. It is equal 
to the area of Europe. More than nine hundred million acres 
have been sold to actual settlers, and a thousand million acres 
yet remain in the hands of the Government. # Less than twenty 
per cent, of the land is now cultivated, the average value of 
which is but fourteen dollars per acre, while that still unsold 
costs but a dollar and a quarter. It is a grand theatre, cer- 
tainly, for the developement of population. It will support 
a thousand million people. Populated as England now is, 330 
to a square mile, the valley of the Mississippi alone will main- 
tain nearly that number. It will grow every product of the 
eastern or western hemisphere, tea, coffee, and sugar in the 
southwest, grain in the northwest, and become the depot of 
the luxuries and necessaries of life. 

The second element of national strength keeps pace with 
the extension of territory. France has grown in population, 
they say, thirty-seven per cent in sixty years. Prussia has 
increased a hundred and fifteen per cent., and England one 
hundred and thirty-seven per cent in the same time, while 
the growth of our population has been five hundred and 
ninety-three per cent, on our numbers in 1800. We double 
every thirty years. In 1876, a century from the declaration 
of independence, with a government by all for all, the funda- 
mental condition of which is universal freedom, we shall 
number fifty millions. At the close of this century, we shall 
have a population of a hundred millions, and in 1950, two 
hundred and fifty millions, nearly equal to that of Europe at 
this time. 

The evidences of wealth harmonize with the elements of 
popular power. * 

The property valuation of the country has doubled every 
fifteen years, since the beginning of the century. It was then 
one thousand million dollars. It is now sixteen thousand 
millions. It more than doubled from 1850 to 1860, and in 1870 
will exceed thirty thousand million dollars, greater than the 
valuation of England which doubles only in thirty years. 

Now, sir, in the grand congress of nations, such facts will 
make an impression upon the world in two respects in which 
we have much interest: first, in regard to our finances, and 
second, in regard to our population. Capital is proverbially 
heartless, and will go wherever it finds material for safe and 
profitable investment. European nations are insecure in their 
political relations. If we settle our domestic affairs, as I have 
no doubt we shall, ours is secure. We will show in mineral 
developement, in increased cotton product, in the extension of 
our cereals, in the increase of population, such an absolute 



22 . 

certainty of the payment of our public and private debts, as 
to deprive the capitalists of Europe of any, even the slightest 
apprehension in making investments in our country. 

I can say, I think without exaggeration — I know it is a strong 
statement that I am about to make — and I intend to make it 
strong, that if the Government of the country should issue its 
scrip in small sums, paying seven, eight, nine, or ten per cent, 
interest, with a full and fair representation of the wealth of our 
resources and the character of our people to the capitalists and 
middle classes, it would break every savings bank in Europe, 
if the Government did not stop subscriptions. 

We have, as the first interest, then, immigration, and secondly, 
financial security. Immigration thus far in this country, though 
a prolific source of strength, has not been altogether what it 
might have been. The Secretary of State, as the Speaker of 
the House knows, sent to us a communication the other day, 
showing that criminals were liberated from imprisonment in the 
old world on condition that they should come to the United 
States. It is a well-known fact that early immigration was of a 
character which would not be said, at the first blush, to be desira- 
ble, but in the providence of God it has been of the first advantage. 
We have never yet touched largely the middle classes of Europe. 
The German States alone, with a population of abotft sixty 
million, and an annual increase of six hundred thousand souls, 
can send us a half million people every year, mainly from the 
middle classes ; men to occupy our land, men who are skilled in 
all industrial pursuits, in wine culture, in the mechanical arts, 
in the mysteries of mining. Skilled labor is the want of our 
country, and will furnish, if it can be obtained, an inappreci- 
able increase of industrial power and product. We paid the 
revolutionary debt in forty-five years. We can pay the present 
debt in less time. Whether it be three or five or even ten 
thousand millions with such possible increase of productive power 
our debt will be paid, every dollar of it, at the day it is due. 
In the hands of such people as ours, that which appears now to 
be material wealth, will be as dross. They will penetrate the 
earth for its hidden treasures, coin the atmosphere if need be, 
and turn to profitable investment many now rejected find value- 
less sources of future wealth. 

Mr. Chairman, facts like these stated to the people of Europe 
open the door for the emigration of the middle classes, who can 
neither buy land nor enter the closed ranks of privileged classes, 
that exhaust the resources, and monopolize the wealth and 
honors of the country. 

In this view, a §hoe or a plough from America is not merely 
evidence of mechanical skill ; it is the representative of a 
country that brings the world within the circle of its influ- 



23 

♦ 

ence, where the grandest acquisitions in material wealth, men- 
tal attainment, and political power are open to the humblest 
citizen of the land. 

With such accessions to our numbers we shall be able to 
discharge our duty to our Government, relieve our people from 
their taxes, and make known to the world the value of the 
services of the illustrious men who have died in the defence of 
the country. It is in such a contest as this that men and 
nations win honors that give them immortality. War is but a 
trivial thing compared with the developments of peace, and if 
showing what we have done in war, we forbear to show to the 
world of what we are capable in peace, we shall reap dishonor 
rather than enduring fame. 

The position of America is marvelous. When we group facts 
common to us all, they seem incredible. But the other day the 
Emperor of France, said to the Corps Legislative, to recom- 
mend his Government to his people, that the constitution of 
France was not unlike that of the United States. 

In the university at Cambridge a professorship has been pro- 
posed for instruction in the principles and history of the 
American Government. An American merchant, Mr. Pea- 
body, has expended from his own fortune, a million and a 
quarter of dollars in the construction of tenement houses for the 
poor in London ; an illustrious example that has been nobly 
imitated by the Empress of France in Paris. It is a duty we 
owe to other nations, as well as to ourselves, to show them 
what we are. Why, sir, there are many men among the 
educated classes of England and France who do not know that 
we speak the English language. 

In the elementary text-books, the United States occupy an 
insignificant position, such as we accord to the distant and 
comparatively unimportant parts of the South American conti- 
nent. It is only when our people are able to speak for them- 
selves, that the Governments of Europe will understand what 
we are, and their people be able to comprehend our institutions 
and acknowledge our rights. In this manner we may avert 
hostility and secure the enduring friendship of all nations. 

' ' Such peace is in the nature of a conquest 
For then both parties nobly are subdued, 
And neither party loser." x 

I am sorry, Mr. Chairman, that I have trespassed so long 
upon your attention. But for the very earnest opposition of 
the gentleman from Illinois, [Mr. Washburn,] to this simple 
resolution, reported by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, I 
should not have ventured upon these remarks. It was not my 
intention when I rose to trespass long, and I conclude with a 
single suggestion : that whatever success we may have in the 



24 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 930 381 8 



field or the workshop, the strength of our civilization is more 
in ideas than in force. The lesson the old world has to learn of 
us, and which we ought hetter to comprehend ourselves, is, that 
in the wise economy of nations, ideas are hetter than blows, 
and brains better than blood. 



The resolutions passed, after debate on the 14th and 15th March. 
50 ; majority, 19. 



Yeas, 69 ; nays, 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




019 930 381 



